A dash cam video showing a motorcyclist jumping into the truck bed of a Ford Ranger that had just hit him while he was splitting lanes is making the internet rounds today.
The biker is seen hitting or taping (it’s not clear from the footage) the sides of the white Ford pickup truck while passing through, at which point, the driver swerved and knocked the rider off his motorcycle without stopping.
Did the driver do it on purpose or was he startled and jerked the steering wheel? We can’t be absolutely sure, but given the belated response time after the tap and the fact that he did not stop, makes us heavily lean towards the first scenario. In any case, the biker lost no time reacting and leaped into the moving Ford’s truck bed, but we don’t see what happened after as the recording was cut.
While the video was shot from a truck following from behind, the rider who goes by the nickname “Dirtbag coffin” gave his side of the story on both YouTube and Instagram:
“Splitting lanes on the 101 freeway in Los Angeles a white for(d) ranger was gradually closing in on our group as we passed, He almost clipped the second to last bike. As I approached from the rear I back-handed the bed of his truck “lightly” to let him know we’re here please stop moving in on us. He decided this was the best way to treat the situation,” he wrote on YouTube.
“Welp here it is. On my way to David Mann chopper show in Ventura country December 11th 2015 this ford ranger wouldn’t let us past and squeezed in on Kelly and I so I gave his truck a love tap to say ‘hey buddy were right here’ annnnnd this happens…… I was up before my bike even stopped sliding,” he said on his Instagram account.
A reminder that lane splitting is technically not illegal in California with the California Highway Patrol stating:
“California law does not allow or prohibit motorcycles from passing other vehicles proceeding in the same direction within the same lane, a practice often called “lane splitting,” “lane sharing” or “filtering.”